[mikelets456]

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. How many times does there need to be an apology. Why don't the Muslims apologize for killing 90% of the slaves they took on. Don't people realize the Muslims started black slavery? Don't the Blacks realize the white Christian male died to fight for them...wasn't that enough? Also, blacks had black slaves...how will that work? This is total BS!

[Mr Rogers]

My ancestors fought to free the slaves. I’m holding out for a ‘thank you’ from the slaves descendants...

Frankly, I think the only apology needed was given during the Civil War.

[what's up]

So descendants of those who fought and died fighting for the Union have to apologize for slavery?

So the majority of the country descended from immigrants who came here after the Civil War have to apologize for something they nor their ancestors had a part of?

The current Dems are total buffoons...of course we all here know that.

[TLI]

I did a bit of searching and found some interesting info that you probably will not see on the Communist News Network.



In order to win over the majority of the public, Lincoln, at his inaugural address in 1861, vowed not to interfere with the institution of slavery. Contrary to present belief, the general public in the North approved of this attitude. However, at the same time, Lincoln set forth an idea to purchase all 4 million slaves (at a cost of between one-half billion to 2 billion dollars) and also to colonize them abroad. Such an economically unreasonable suggestion was unnecessary as events paved the way for true emancipation without financial compensation.
http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/EmancipationPr.html

Some more, (there was a LOT of info out there)

Surprisingly, to many history impaired individuals, most Union Generals and staff had slaves to serve them! William T. Sherman had many slaves that served him until well after the war was over and did not free them until late in 1865.

U.S. Grant also had several slaves, who were only freed after the 13th amendment in December of 1865. When asked why he didn't free his slaves earlier, Grant stated "Good help is so hard to come by these days."

Contrarily, Confederate General Robert E. Lee freed his slaves (which he never purchased - they were inherited) in 1862!!! Lee freed his slaves several years before the war was over, and considerably earlier than his Northern counterparts. And during the fierce early days of the war when the South was obliterating the Yankee armies!

Lastly, and most importantly, why did NORTHERN States outlaw slavery only AFTER the war was over? The so-called "Emancipation Proclamation" of Lincoln only gave freedom to slaves in the SOUTH! NOT in the North! This pecksniffery even went so far as to find the state of Delaware rejecting the 13th Amendment in December of 1865 and did not ratify it (13th Amendment / free the slaves) until 1901!
http://www.rulen.com/myths/



And there is a concise explanation of the true nature of the war here.

[stratman1969]

Did Senator Byrd apologize for being a Kleagle in the KKK and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Seems to me the Democrat Party should be the one’s apologizing, since they not only fought to keep slavery but fought to keep segregation as well.

[Liberty Valance]

http://www.juneteenth.us/
Cheer up folks. It’s time to celebrate!
God Bless Texas!

[Free_SJersey]

It will come to reparations no matter what the final bill says and when it does, I hope someone insists that in order to qualify, their lineage must be documented back to a slave. Also, once the amount to be awarded is determined, from that they subtract the cost of welfare, affirmative action, the Watts(, Detroit, Newark, et al) riots, gang violence, etc. When the final figure is tabulated, it should be adjusted for the economic conditions in Africa today that they would be living (possibly) under today had their ancesters been allowed to remain in Africa.

[bamahead]

Carol M. Swain, a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University who had pushed for the Bush administration to issue an apology, called the Democratic-controlled Senate's resolution "meaningless" since the party and federal government are led by a black president and black voters are closely aligned with the Democratic party.

"The Republican Party needed to do it," Swain said. "It would have shed that racist scab on the party."

A little Bing-ing reveals Carol M. Swain homepage and this little factoid:

Carol Swain is now a contributing political blogger for The Huffington Post.

So, before you go dropping a quarter million dollars on an education at Vanderbilt University, you might want to consider that they employ partisan dishonest politcal hacks as "PhD's". The Democrat party is the party with richest history of slavery, racism, and segregation in the USA.

Obviously a knowledge of true history is not a qualification for idiots like Carol M. Swain, "PhD", or Vanderbilt University.

[Oldpuppymax]

I guess the trillions stolen by Big Brother and redistributed as welfare don’t count.

[ctdonath2]

latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.

Impossible.

The federal government can only take responsibility for 89 years of slavery - the time between formation of the government and when it legally ended slavery. Heck, the government has only existed for 233 years, so it cannot take responsibility for 250 years of anything; it has spent more time apologizing for slavery than allowing it.

[ctdonath2]

"You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago,"

We did. Sacrificing 600,000 people to stop it is one he11 of an apology. We've been apologizing for it for 144 years.

[TChris]

I wholeheartedly agree with an apology for slavery!

Every living slave owner should absolutely issue an apology to each and every living slave he ever owned.

The descendants of slave owners who have never, themselves, OWNED slaves and the descendants of slaves who have never BEEN slaves owe and deserve, respectively, nothing from it all.

If black Americans have experienced disadvantages due to the history of slavery in America, they have also most certainly benefited from the efforts of others which were not their doing.

It's a wash in the long run.

Take charge of and responsibility for your own life and make it what you would like it to be.

[matginzac]

I’m sure quick to follow will be the apologies for: 1) the welfare state that has enslaved more than any plantation owners and African nations did, 2) the present union-run school system that keeps students of all colors ignorant and submissive, 3) affirmative action where anyone of color who does well is marginalized because they are suspect of benefitting from special help...let’s get on with all the apologizin’.

[chesley]

Racist scab" on the Republican Party??!! What is this woman smoking. Was Abe Lincoln a Democrat? What are they teaching people these days? No doubt George Wallace was a Republican. I never owned a slave; I owe nobody for anything. I don't care if blacks get over it or not. It's their problem, not mine. I won't apologize for something for which I bear no responsibility.

[Condor51]

the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.

#$@& ... %$#*@ ... #$@& STOO-PID sons of beeches!

Slavery existed in America, aka The United States of America, aka The USA for, at the MOST ... 89 lousy years! Sheesh, doesn't anyone remember what Abe Lincoln said in The Gettysburg Address, given in 1863 ...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, etc, etc...

A 'score' is 20. Four 'score' = 80. Add 7, and you have 87 YEARS!. And that "new nation" was the USA, and he was referring to the Declaration of Independence written in 1776. So from 1776 to the end of the Civil War in 1865, we have 89 years. Not 250 years. Not 400 years. Dammit to hell!

Annnnnnd if we want to get really technical, and right now I DO, the USA didn't really exist until the Constitution was ratified in ... 1787! That is when slaves were put down in writing by the 'Federal Government' as property, as less than human. So that brings slavery down to existing 78 years in "America".

I'm sick of hearing about 2½ Century's of slavery "in America", or that absurd 400 years that's thrown around. That's BULLSHEET, "America" didn't exist then. And another thing. "250" years before the end of the Civil War is 1615. But the Mayflower and its Pilgrims didn't land at Plymouth until 1620! And I DON'T recall the Pilgrims owning slaves either.

[BP2]

Three words come to mind:

Pandering

Race Pimps

[xrmusn]

Agree with paying any LIVING ex slave.
On the other hand those that are living ex slaves—and those that are descendants of slaves—had an opportunity when President Monroe ‘offered’ free passage etc to anyone who WANTED to return to the ‘Mother Land’, in a brand new country called Liberia, complete with a US President’s name being the capital...

[ZULU]

TO mean anything, an apology has to come from the person who did whatever to the person who was wronged.

Nobody in the Senate was ever a slave holder. Aside from possibly Helen Thomas, nobody alive today could possibly have been a slave.

So, any such “apology” is merely shameless pandering, something American politicians have refined to high art form.

If they were so concerned about slavery, they would speak out against the cult of Islam which approves, condones, encourages and values the enslavement of non-Muslims and continues to do so in Islam-terrorized rat holes like Sudan.

[ZULU]

“You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), “

Because, you lame-brained idiot, people back in the early 1900’s knew slavery in the U.S. had ended in a bloody civil war in which thousands of white boys north and south had suffered and died over that institution and its abolition. They knew they had nothing to apologize for.

After Harken gets done shining the collective shoes of all the NAACP members and their ilk who support this tripe, he should go back to hog calling for a living in Iowa and get out of the Senate.